(Eagle News) – Bureau of Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña has backtracked on his earlier statement on there was no shabu inside four magnetic lifters found in Cavite, and now admits that these may have indeed contained shabu.
This was after hearing various testimonies at the House of Representatives, including that of a Department of Public Works and Highways official on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
“With the continuing investigation and yung mga lumalabas na mga circumstantial evidences, and finally kanina yung DPWH testimony na yung design ng mga lifter na yun is not really for a lifter but more of to contain certain substances that will be placed there,” Lapeña told reporters during a break in the House hearing.
“So with those evidences, with those testimonies, I am now more inclined to believe that indeed na yung mga magnetic lifters na yun contained shabu,” he said.
“With this development, I will tend to believe, indeed, there was a content that has been peddled by this group, this drug syndicate,” Lapeña also said during the House hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
This was after the testimony of DPWH Director Toribio Ilao had testified on the unfitness for use of lifters for metal.
“With the hollow area, our conclusion is the magnetic lifters (are) not fit for purpose in terms of lifting any scrap materials,” said Ilao who is the director for the DPWH Bureau of Equipment, during the joint inquiry of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs and Good Government and Public Accountability into the shabu smuggling incident.
Aside from finding that the magnetic lifters were thinly welded, Ilao said the bureau also found asbestos and lead inside the lifters.
Ilao said that the asbestos could distort or diffuse X-ray images, while lead can protect from heat the contents inside the lifters.
“Talagang may nakalusot nga. But of course, ito ay, it was a very sophisticated way of shipment ng mga drug syndicates . And these are the things that we want to discover, and we want to be able to remedy in the future,” Lapeña said
Before this, Lapeña and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino had been issuing contradictory statements on the magnetic lifters found by the PDEA in Cavite.
PDEA’s Aquino had said that he was sure that the lifters, which were empty when found, had contained P6.8 billion worth of shabu as their drug-sniffing dogs had responded positively during an inspection of the magnetic lifters. The lifters already had holes from where the supposed shabu had been taken out.
Lapena before had insisted that the lifters found by PDEA could not have contained shabu, citing a negative swab test of the lifters.
Aquino however was firmly confident that PDEA’s drug-sniffing dogs could not have been mistaken when they responded positively on the lifters, indicating that these had contained illegal drugs.
Former Customs X-ray Inspection Project (XIP) chief Lourdes Mangaoang had earlier also claimed that the magnetic lifters found in Cavite had contained illegal drugs. She said that the shabu were contained in foil and vacuum packed in plastic which could not have left traces of the drug on the lifters. She said this would explain why the swab test done by the BOC on the lifters had tested negative.
